If you have IBS, stress management, sleep, exercise, and diet are all keys to a healthier lifestyle. Here are some easy ways you can lessen your IBS symptoms.

Treatment for irritable bowel syndrome, often called IBS, is shifting more toward diet and lifestyle modifications instead of focusing only on medications, says William D. Chey, MD, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor. That means there are more things you can incorporate into your daily routine to help control symptoms.

Lifestyle Tips for IBS: Stress Reduction

Just about everyone needs to lower their stress level nowadays, right? Turns out, it's even more important if you have IBS, Dr. Chey said. "Stress probably isn't the cause of IBS, but it can worsen IBS," he noted.

Sometimes, just recognizing that stress can ramp up your IBS symptoms may be enough to prompt you to pay attention to daily stressors. When that doesn't work, Chey recommends behavioral therapy techniques, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT helps change the way you think about something — if concerns over whether you're eating IBS-friendly foods makes you anxious because you think you will experience symptoms of IBS, then CBT with a trained behavioral therapist or psychologist can help you think about eating in a more realistic or positive way.

If a physician treating your IBS recommends that you see a trained professional for CBT, Chey explains, that does not mean that your health care provider believes there's something mentally wrong with you. "Unfortunately, that might be how it comes across when a doctor doesn't take time to explain what CBT is," he says.

Lifestyle Tips for IBS: Sleep

Quality sleep seems to be harder to come by when you have IBS, Chey says. However, it's still unclear if poor sleep can lead to IBS or if IBS symptoms are so disturbing that they affect sleep. Although the value of sleep for improving IBS symptoms has not yet been carefully tested in clinical trials, physicians still want you to get enough quality sleep. And, by "quality sleep," they mean sleep that is long enough and at consistent times to satisfy your regular needs. A study published in 2010 in the American Journal of Gastroenterology found that, among nurses working the day shift, night shift, or rotating shifts, the highest prevalence of IBS was in nurses with rotating shifts. Those nurses did not get quality sleep because their circadian rhythms were not consistent. "Disrupting circadian rhythms increases the likelihood of increased GI symptoms," Chey says.

Lifestyle Tips for IBS: Exercise

Get out there and get moving — exercise will likely help your IBS. It also can help you lose weight, if that's your goal. Aim for exercise a few times a week that gets your heart pumping. You also may want to consider yoga and relaxation and breathing exercises, which can help you tackle stress better.

Researchers reported in the American Journal of Gastroenterology in 2011 that people with IBS who exercised with the support of a physical therapist several times a week experienced improved IBS symptoms more than a control group that did not exercise with a physical therapist.

Exercise might help you when you have IBS because your diet tends to improve and your bowel habits become more regular. It also could be that exercise gives you a chance to tune out your problems and provide stress relief, Chey says. Research into the benefits of exercise for IBS is ongoing.

Lifestyle Tips for IBS: Diet

Considering that two-thirds of people with IBS say their symptoms are made worse by eating a meal, you'd think there would be long-established, clear-cut guidelines on foods to eat and foods to avoid if you have IBS. Yet, Chey says that it's only been in the past five years that researchers have come to better understand the connection between diet and IBS. "Our treatment paradigm has changed from predominantly recommending drugs to putting diet front and center," he says.

So what does that mean for you? Newer research focuses on a low-FODMAP diet — with FODMAP being an acronym for fermentable oligosaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. Some culprits that fall under the FODMAP moniker include food items with lactose and fructose. Dairy items, honey, high-fructose corn syrup, sugar-free candy and gums, wheat and rye breads, and even fruits like apples and watermelon fall on the high-FODMAP list. A gluten-free diet also seems to help some people with IBS.

If you're looking to lose weight and you have IBS, you'll want to work with your physician and possibly a dietitian to target the best foods for you to avoid so you don't trigger your IBS or deprive your body of maximal nutrition.